DORSET’S Georgia Hall held her nerve to equal her career-best finish on the Ladies’ European Tour after sharing fifth place with China’s Xiyu Lin at the Buick Championship.

Hall closed with a one-under-par 71 at the Shanghai Qizhong Garden Golf Club, leaving her with a four-round total of 282, six-under for the tournament.

She finished just two shots behind reigning European Masters champion Beth Allen, the American claiming outright third position to return to the top of the LET Order of Merit.

Hall, who banked 16,152 euro, was also just one stroke adrift of Becky Morgan from Wales who finished in fourth place on seven-under-par.

The 20-year-old former Canford Kid, who also finished fifth in last year’s Tipsport Masters in Czech Republic, is now fifth on the LET Order of Merit after taking her season’s winnings to 42,983 euro.

China’s Shanshan Feng retained the title with a play-off victory over South Korean Na Yeon Choi following an exciting final-round which saw the pair finish eight shots ahead of Hall.

Sharing the lead for the last three rounds, both Choi and Feng carded 67s in testing conditions for a matching 72-hole total of 14-under-par.

Choi led for most of the round until she bogeyed the 18th in regulation play and then again in the play-off.

“I didn’t expect it!” said Feng, who made a birdie putt of around 10 feet at the first extra hole.

“Today, from the beginning, Na Yeon was ahead and I was behind, but I never gave up. When we had two holes left I thought, ‘I’m just going to try my best and see what happens,’ and I think I had luck on my side. I’m really happy to finish with a birdie on the last hole and I’m really proud that I was able to defend my title.”

The 26-year-old world number 10, from Guangzhou, pulled a stroke ahead of Choi with the first of three straight birdies at the fourth hole. Both players birdied the fifth and sixth but Feng dropped back into a share of the lead with a bogey on the eighth. Choi then birdied the long ninth gaining a one stroke advantage through the turn.

The 28-year-old world number 18, from Seoul, moved two strokes clear after 11, but Feng birdied 12 before they both birdied 13 and Choi looked totally in control as she chipped in for birdie at the 14th to move two ahead again.

Yet Choi’s driving became unreliable down the stretch and she had to take an unplayable drop on 15 after hitting her ball under a tree in long meadow grass. She made an incredible bogey to stay one ahead of Feng and then birdied 16. But after a heavy shower set in and play was suspended for 30 minute due to the threat of lightning, the momentum turned. Feng holed a birdie putt on 17 to get within a stroke of the lead and Choi then found difficulty off the 18th tee.

Feng said: “frustration turned into motivation” and she made her par as Choi took a bogey. In the play-off, Choi’s first putt travelled way past the hole and she missed the return, before Feng made her birdie attempt from around 10 feet.

It meant that Feng, the 2015 LET Order of Merit winner, collected her fourth Chinese title, worth 72,966 euro, which was her sixth LET title and 15th victory as a professional.